


Little Miss Perfect

by prinz_charlie



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: F/F, Inspired by Little Miss Perfect, Light Angst, Pre-Canon, Shadow Weaver and other side characters are mentioned, they do be having issues tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:14:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26433220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prinz_charlie/pseuds/prinz_charlie
Summary: Adora couldn't risk falling off the throne Shadow Weaver had put her on, and she was determined to stand by that. Nothing would change that. Not even a stupid crush on her best friend.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 42





	Little Miss Perfect

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was inspired by the song "Little Miss Perfect" written by Joriah Kwamé. I would like to take this moment to say that I know that this song is highly associated with the The Owl House fandom, yet this fic has nothing to do with any of that. I've known the song ever since it dropped and I had the idea for this fic before I even watched The Owl House. Don't get me wrong, I adore the show, I just want you to know that this fic isn't related to or inspired by it in the slightest. That being said, I highly recommend you listen to this song, it is a true masterpiece. That's it, enjoy reading!

Adora was perfect in every sense of the word. Starting from her perfect ponytail to her jacket that she took great care in keeping clean, up to her well-fitting boots. She was only seventeen and a better soldier than people years older than her aspired to be. Shadow Weaver put more trust in her than she put in anyone else and coaches and Force Captains praised the young cadet’s talent and flawless technique. From the moment she had joined the Horde on, her future had been clearly laid out in front of her. Her past consisted of training and getting better, to one day achieve the highest rank and defeat the Rebellion, which – from her current position – seemed like a goal not so far away anymore. Her chances of being promoted Force Captain were increasing by the second. Yes, Adora didn’t cut corners. She was liked or at least accepted by the other soon-to-be soldiers, and no one threw her sour looks when she showed up to training. She made a point to be on time, never a second too late. When the other cadets invited her to hang out, she usually sensed the risk of getting caught by Shadow Weaver and declined politely, intending to stay on her teacher’s good side.

Well, if she was being completely honest, she didn’t always do that. At least not when her best friend asked her to hang out. Catra. Something about her always made Adora agree, reluctantly or not, to her requests and if they stayed up all night talking and were too tired to sit up straight during breakfast the next day, so it was worth it. But that was just what being friends with Catra was like. Even within all the hidden teasing Adora always knew that if she ever were to struggle with anything Catra would be at her side and walk through the storm with her. It would include complaining and dramatic sighs, of course, but nevertheless, they’d survive it.

Yes, Adora’s life was pretty much perfect.

Pretty much.

If someone were to ask her how her life was going, she’d answer that way, at least.

If someone were to ask her how she was doing, however… well.

She had never had a real family, only her troupe and Shadow Weaver. She was a stranger to genuine care if she allowed her brain to go there and actually internalize that knowledge. Needless to say that that didn’t happen very often, anyways. Adora worked hard to keep her feelings hidden away, at least the ones who could potentially expose her to an extent that would put her at risk of being denied the position of Force Captain. And damnit, did she know how to be a hard worker. It was all she was, her essence.

And yet, somehow she had never felt like the hard worker in front of Catra. In fact, she never felt more like herself than when she was with her. With Catra she could stay up talking all night about… whatever. She could run around the Fright Zone and climb up ladders and buildings with her, playing like they had when they had been little kids and imagining what lay outside of the Fright Zone, behind the Whispering Woods. They could joke about the princesses and dream of the world after the Horde would have taken it over: No more training or strictly scheduled courses of the day. No more humdrum food. No more Shadow Weaver. Around Catra she was herself. Around Catra she was simply perfect as she was, without watching her every step or monitoring her every move or contemplating her every word. She was just… Adora.

It shouldn’t have surprised Adora when she started falling for her best friend.

It started with Adora catching herself letting her gaze linger on Catra whenever she looked at her for a little longer than absolutely necessary. The more deliberate attention she paid to her the more did her big eyes become magical instead of just deep to her. She would gaze into them longer and more aware of them and search for something that she couldn’t pinpoint but still knew existed, hidden deep inside of her. She also noticed it at the little shivers running down her spine as soon as Catra’s tail flicked over the back of her hand or her foot when she was just about to leave. She felt it when Catra bumped her shoulder into Adora’s after teasing her and Adora felt those little sparkles of electricity jump back and forth between them. She noticed it when one of the first things she thought about in the morning was Catra.

She didn’t allow the thoughts to spread, of course. Her feelings, however…

Well, she did her best to repress them. Catra was her best friend, she wouldn’t ruin that by confessing to having feelings for her, she wasn’t stupid! Maybe she was an idiot, but even then, she was Catra’s idiot, that was different.

Yes, apart from that little slip-up, Adora was perfect. And it would have been fine. It would have passed by. Adora was certain that she would have moved on from this absurd thing that she had quickly identified as a crush sooner or later, she was a teenager, slip-ups happened. But having a crush was out of the question for her. The only thing making her keep her sanity in this situation was knowing that feelings faded. As they should, because she couldn’t risk falling off the throne Shadow Weaver had put her on. Love wasn’t in the books for her.

Adora immediately scolded herself at that.

 _Love_. Ridiculous, she didn’t even know love, how could she ever experience it?

Anyway, she was certain that it would have been fine.

It would have… if it hadn’t been for that one night that they climbed up to their favorite spot a little later than they usually would have and leaned on the unstable railing, letting their legs dangle over the abyss.

The night was cloudy, only a few rays of the shimmering moonlight breaking their way through to them. The Fright Zone appeared in an unusual soft light that didn’t fail at enticingly dancing around Catra’s features. The feline was sat on the railing, her tail wagging to and fro ever so slightly, sometimes brushing over Adora’s hand. The blonde pulled herself over the abyss and stretched out her torso, so she could see everything the way her best friend next to her did. “Do you like it here?”, she asked.

“What? Of course, dummy. We’ve never been anywhere outside the Fright Zone anyway, not like we have much of a choice anyway.” Catra cocked her head. “What question even is that, why are you asking?”

Adora chuckled. “No, I didn’t mean here, I meant _here_. With me.”

Catra furled her eyebrows, throwing Adora a skeptic look. “We’ve been here at least a dozen times already, do you think I’d be here if I didn’t want to be?” She turned back to the sky, the conversation seemingly concluded for her. Adora let her gaze linger on the feline. What was it about this night that Catra looked so much more captivating? Like the whole universe was trapped in her eyes, spiraling and swirling in circles, making them come alive. No wonder no stars were to be seen, Catra had stolen them all.

This time Adora nearly slapped herself. She had to get this crush-thing under control! Catra was her best friend, nothing less and certainly nothing more. So why did her body not comply? She didn’t need her heartbeat stopping for half a second every time Catra smirked at her! With an intense training session planned for tomorrow and Shadow Weaver having requested a talk the next day she had enough to deal with already.

“Hey, Adora! Adora?”, Catra ripped her out of her worries. “What is _up_ with you?”

Adora stared at her dumbfoundedly like the classic deer in the headlights for a second, before she violently shook her head. “Nothing”, she answered a little too quickly. “I was just thinking, don't worry about it.”

Catra raised an eyebrow but shrugged. “Alright, weirdo, if you say so…”

Purposefully Adora moved away from her best friend a little, as not to spark yet another one of those head-over-heels reactions her body seemed to come up with solely to annoy her. She was just in the process of locking every thought that considered Catra anything more than a friend away when she felt her tail brush over her hand again as if the feline knew what impact it would have on her. Adora couldn’t even remember if Catra had always done that even before these tantalizing feelings started to boil over or just now started doing it when it started to drive Adora insane. But no matter how hard Adora worked on keeping her feelings at bay, her mind still drifted to places of Catra holding her and them falling asleep and enticed and her kissing Catra at their favorite spot. This was getting frustrating, couldn’t she just put this in a box, throw the box over to Etheria and let the princesses destroy it? She was good at structuring things if she needed to be, so why couldn’t she be good at it now? If this continued it would for sure drive her out of her mind and god, if Catra’s tail brushed over her hand one more time she would for sure forget how to breathe properly!

“So, do you think the old cockroach is gonna promote us soon?”, Catra broke the comfortable silence. “She kinda has to, we’re the best two in training, don’t you think so?”

Adora chuckled, thankful for the distraction. “You mean Shadow Weaver?” She continued staring off into the distance. “I mean, I guess so. But there’s no exact date that she has to promote us at. She could also just leave us to train more and get better.”

“Mm, you’re such a crank”, Catra rolled her eyes and jumped off the railing, swiftly walking over to a metal cup with water they had snatched from dinner a few weeks ago and called their own ever since. She took a sip and Adora bit her lip. How was she so good-looking? When did her straight-planned organized brain turn into this mess? “We’re gonna get promoted and then we’ll get away from this place.” She shrugged and put the cup down. “Maybe crush a few princesses”, she continued with glittering eyes.

Adora chuckled again. “You really want to get out of here, don’t you?”, she asked a little softer.

Catra looked at her for a second too long before she made a dismissive hand gesture. “I’m just bored here. Where’s the adventure? Where’s the defeating the Rebellion? You know, what we’re actually being prepared for.”

A gentle breeze had set in and Adora pushed a stubborn strand of her that had fallen out of her ponytail out of her face. She turned to Catra. “They’re preparing us, so when we get sent on a mission, we won’t fall into a tarp of the Rebellion or get taken hostage. It’s for our best.”

Catra only rolled her eyes, crossing her arms on the railing like Adora had earlier and leaning forward. Adora joined her. “I just don’t get it”, Catra continued. “I mean, they train us all our lives, make sure we stay in shape, barely give us time off, and yet they only let us fight simulations? Where’s the fun in that? I just want to go out and show a princess out there who she’s up against. And what even _is_ our training, I’m a hundred percent sure that today’s training was rigged, how else could Lonnie have ever scored so high?”

Adora just watched her go off, half the time not even registering what she said and occasionally pushing the strand of hair that the breeze blew in her face out of her field of vision again. She couldn’t help it, she just saw this incredibly important person in her life talking about something she was passionate about and that was enough to keep her fascinated for probable hours. Well, it was, until once again Catra pulled her out of her thoughts.

“Ugh, why are you staring? Do I have dirt on my cheek or what?”, she asked, slapping her cheek to accentuate her question. “I’d normally only like to slap Shadow Weaver like that”, she added mumbling. “Just slap her in the face, it’s what she deserves.” At the a little too true to be funny joke Adora let out a chuckle to lighten the mood. Catra raised an eyebrow. “That wasn’t a joke.” The blonde’s chuckle died away. Catra sighed and walked away. Hours must have flown by like seconds because the moon was now shimmering through the clouds that had thinned out and the light breeze had gotten significantly colder. “I’m cold, let’s go.” She turned around to wait for Adora who tore her eyes loose from the clouds that were pushing themselves in front of the moon and quickly followed her. “Also, if I have to watch you struggle with your hair once more, I might actually set it on fire, just put it in a braid”, Catra added, rolling her eyes at her best friend as soon as she caught up with her.

“What? No. I mean, I like it this way", Adora hastily shrugged it off. 

Catra sighed unnerved. “Just come here, dummy.” In one smooth motion, she jumped behind Adora, took her hair out of the ponytail, and braided it. Adora nearly passed out from the way her heartbeat sped up when she felt Catra’s breath in her neck. “There you go, thank me later”, the feline said and leaped on one of the buildings next to her, running along the edge of it. Adora palpated the braid. It felt strange, normally she always wore her hair up in the perfect ponytail. Small stubborn hairs were still falling out of the braid and yet they were woven into each other. She liked it.

The blonde soldier would have been a fool if she had thought that Catra and she would go to sleep when they silently entered their dorms and sat down on Adora’s bed. She was tired, yes, but that didn’t stop her brain form going a hundred miles an hour and besides, Catra was still going on about today’s training, about how she believed that it had been rigged and unfair and something else that Adora had lost hold of. All her senses were focused on the weak light eliciting from the last lamp that was bravely lighting the bed up and the way it danced around Catra’s features. The wrinkle her eyebrows did when something particularly enraging left her mouth, the way she proudly pulled up the corner of her mouth when she told Adora about how she had disarmed Lonnie, and the way that her tail was brushing over Adora’s wrist every once in a while all made Adora’s heartbeat quicken in the oddest and yet best possible way.

Adora always had everything under control – clear on the radar, in front of her, and straight forward. She stayed on top of things, no matter how chaotic they may be. She didn’t cut corners. Mostly. In front of any authority figure, at least. But what they thought of her defined her, so it was fine, wasn’t it?

God this crush was making her go crazy.

“Adora? Adora! Are you even listening to me? What’s up with you tonight?”

Adora snapped out of it.

Perfect…

She was always the person perfectly fit for other people and their needs.

Little Miss Perfect.

Her gaze was drawn back to her best friend next to her. She wasn’t that to her… perfect. In front of Catra, she was just Adora. She was a dummy and an idiot and… a best friend. At that moment, there was no one who could ever be more perfect to Adora than Catra. She couldn’t help it anymore and suddenly her hand came to rest on Catra’s and she swore she could feel her heartbeat in her palm. It was racing but that was ok because so was hers and Catra looked up at her with those dichromatic, big eyes, and that slight look of confusion, and Adora was lost.

Without another moment of hesitation, she surged forward and pressed her lips against Catra’s.

And at that moment, it was the rightest feeling – the most perfect feeling in the world, as Catra didn’t push her away but kissed back. Adora’s hand came to rest on Catra’s back and she pulled her closer and her eyes fell shut and Catra’s hand under her own lifted itself off the bed to entwine her fingers with hers. And Adora stroked the back of Catra’s hand with her thumb as the feline buried her other hand in Adora’s hair and she fell into this incredible feeling of bliss and happiness and being herself and…

And there she was standing, shaking her head disappointedly. “Adora.” Her voice was cold, upset. “Do you really want her distracting you?”

The blonde pulled back, barely registering Catra chasing after her lips. “Shadow Wea…?” Her voice died away. Catra’s grip on her hand tightened a little, but Adora instantly pulled it away, her fingers slipping from Catra’s as she scooted back on the bed.

“Are you really going to allow yourself to get distracted by someone like her?”, the sorceress continued. “You could do so much better.” Adora blinked rapidly, her head snapped in the direction of the door. She swore she could hear footsteps behind it. “I can make you strong, Adora. You have a bright future ahead of you.” Adora got up, ignoring the twitch of Catra’s hand. She couldn’t have reached out for her, anyways. “If you just listen to me”, Shadow Weaver continued, emphasizing every word. “Don’t let her get in the way.”

A shiver ran down Adora’s back as she stumbled towards the door, ripped it open, and was met with… nothing. “But…” She couldn’t have imagined all that, right? This had to be real! She stumbled out of the room, one hand still on the door handle, and inspected the dimly lit corridor, just as the edge of a black cloak crossed the corner. Adora sprinted after it, but when she reached said corner no one was to be seen. She spun back around on her heels and ran up to the other end of the corridor, but again, no one. This couldn’t be… She couldn’t have…

Breathing heavier she returned to the open door. Only now did she notice her heart going a million miles an hour. The palms of her shaking hands were sweaty, her knees were weak and threatened to buckle under her weight at any time. Adora appeared in the door frame and turned back to Catra. “I- Didn’t you notice her?”, she panted, keeping her voice low and pointing at the door right over her shoulder. “She was outside. She-” Catra furled her brows, seemingly frozen in her movements. The blonde turned back outside and frantically looked around. “There- Didn’t you hear her? She was talking and was standing right there!” She pointed to the corner where she had seen Shadow Weaver vanish. “She- she was right there and then she disappeared. There’s nothing there anymore…” Catra still only stared at her. Crestfallen Adora closed the door, leaning against it.

She heard someone shifting from across the room. Her gaze shot up just in time to see Catra standing up and walking over to her. Her face made her heart ache. Her eyes shimmered in the weak light, her mouth was twisted painfully. The rest vanished behind a mask.

“Catra, I-“

Catra immediately shook her head. “Don’t be an idiot, Adora”, she said silently. Her voice was cold, strange. She didn’t quite sound like herself. She only looked Adora in the eyes for the split of a second before her gaze drifted to the door. She shook her head again, this time seemingly more at herself. “You’re right. There’s nothing there.” Adora stared at her aghast, her mouth opening and closing without making any sound. Uselessly she pointed to the door, mouthing a “but”. Catra stared at her through her big eyes that Adora could’ve just fallen into and drowned in at any other moment, and maybe if the light had been better she could’ve seen the hurt in them but it didn’t matter, because the feline already turned around, her arms hanging at her sides, tensed up. “I’m going to bed.” And she went away, took one of the spare blankets, and rolled it out on the floor. Away from Adora’s bed.

At that moment she found her words again. She stepped away from the door, suppressed Shadow Weaver’s tone of voice that was still ghosting in her brain. “No, Catra, I didn’t…”

“It’s fine, Adora. I get it.” Her gaze drifted back to Adora - then the door. “There’s nothing there.” She stared at the door for a second too long, swallowed hard, and with an unreadable expression she rolled to her side, curling in on herself.

Adora just looked at her. The desire to simply walk over to her and stretch out her hand to her was overwhelming. But the way that Catra had turned her back to her was speaking volumes. This was her own fault. As if she’d ever get to experience love. It was either this or that and with the Rebellion going on being perfect was her top priority.

Catra took a shaky breath that sounded like a scream in the silent room.

Adora swallowed hard. She couldn’t risk falling off her thrown. Not for anyone, not even Catra. Her heart stung. 

She would be lying if she claimed that she hadn’t been looking at Catra like every night before she went to sleep that night. But this night her best friend had turned her back to her and was sleeping on the floor, so far away from her. The free space next to her legs where Catra was usually curled up felt painfully cold. The braid fell over her shoulder as she turned around. Adora convinced herself that she didn’t take her hair out of it because she was too tired to do so and absolutely not because Catra had braided it.

She spent the night convincing herself that this was the right decision. How could she ever experience love? How would she stay perfect, if she did? How would Catra look at her in the morning? In her dreams, Catra brushed the incident off and took her hand. She kissed her again and pressed the tips of her fingers into her hipbones, softly massaging, and a future in which they shared countless beautiful moments followed.

When Adora woke up from a restless sleep, Catra’s sleeping spot was empty. And she had no one but herself to blame. 

Of course, it was empty.

It was the final straw that assured Adora everything she had already imagined. She erased that night from her memory. The way Catra had braided her hair, her fingers so uncharacteristically soft and careful, the passion with which she had told her about how she had nearly been the best in training that day, and the feeling of her lips against her own – she suppressed everything, banned it into the deepest canyons of her memory and cleared her throat.

It was time for training.

She wasn’t worth her wait. For Little Miss Perfect, it was _never_ worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading everyone, I'll read you next time! 
> 
> tumblr and twitter: @ haveuseenmylife


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